Quote:
Mark Murray wrote:
In the videos of Ueshiba, sitting on the mat, with three people pushing on his head, did he have to move his feet to break their balance? Why couldn't they push him over? What was happening with Ueshiba not being moved?
Read Peter Goldsbury's TIE article where he talks about Ueshiba and ushiro techniques.
Why did high ranking Kendo people want to train with Ueshiba to learn his "tai sabaki"? They'd trained their whole life for Kendo movement. What was different about Ueshiba that they wanted to learn?
IMO, if you "MUST" move your feet to gain kuzushi, then that's jujutsu. Not aikido. Aiki captures center on contact and thus not a requirement for movement to gain kuzushi. Yes, movement is good and should be trained, but if you're relying 100% on movement to gain kuzushi, then that's jujutsu to me. (Again, nothing wrong with jujutsu. I'm not passing a good or bad judgment here.)
No aiki = no aikido. No aiki = not capturing center on contact = no kuzushi. Moving to get kuzushi because you can't capture center on contact any other way = jujutsu. All the physical "leading" movements that help get kuzushi, to capture uke's center, are all jujutsu, IMO.
And that is what's meant by the concept of "do it while not moving your feet". It's the concept of aiki.
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Mark,
It doesn't matter whether they move the feet or not. If you try this kind of technique without some understanding of aiki, the uke can and should stop you dead. Moving your feet will not produce kuzushi because uke will also move his and adjust.
You are absolutely right that it needs to be over on contact. There has to be an element in which nage receives the energy of the attack. If that doesn't happen you have a conflict and uke is letting you push him over. If that were happening, I'd look for at least a little falling forward towards nage on the part of uke just as he touched. This wouldn't be "because" of the foot movement, it would be at the same time as the foot movement. That's my take on it.